On Friday, January 10, Brutal Truth bassist Danny Lilker announced via Facebook that he “will be retiring from being a full time recording and touring musician” on his forthcoming 50th birthday, October 18, 2014. The news flash resonated throughout the entire online extreme community, who, in the process, appears to have disregarded Lilker’s commitment to…

I had an interesting conversation with a metal peer over coffee yesterday, and was asked what makes a “traditional” heavy metal album made in 2014 worth spending money on when all I have to do is listen to a Judas Priest album. I had to pause and consider that for a minute. For a writer…

I’m pretty sure “Soreption” is a made up word. I think maybe it’s a phonetic transcription of vocalist Fredrik Söderberg’s shrieks. These dudes play seriously gnarly technical death metal to the level where you might need a physics degree just to headbang to it. You can hear them constructing the framework of the abyss as…

A couple months back I was honored to usher the legendary 1995 Integrity album Systems Overload into the Decibel Hall of Fame and now, on the eve of a hell-freezes-over reunion at the A389 Recordings ten-year anniversary Bash in Baltimore, comes a new track from the Systems era line-up. Enjoy an exclusive stream of “7th…

Just as there are many roads that lead to metal (adolescent anger, an ear for complex music, etc.), there are multiple avenues by which a curious mind might encounter Noam Chomsky, one of our era’s great-thinking heavy hitters.  Students of linguistic theory will certainly encounter his work, which in the middle of the last century…

We weren’t surprised to find out that one of the people involved with efforts to place a gigantic Baphomet statue on the Oklahoma Capitol grounds is connected with extreme metal. I guess we’re just happy that they are pursuing their goals through civil discourse rather than pulling a Burzum. Brian Werner is a High Priest…

Ian “Lemmy” Kilmister is a living legend. An untouchable icon. But Lemmy and his Motörheads didn’t always have ace albums. In fact, across Motörhead’s storied–we’re talking almost four decades–career, the monoliths of metal have had some real stinkers. While we implore you to check out Lemmy in our February 2014 issue (click HERE) we’re also…

Since our Brewtal Truth column first appeared in Decibel nearly five years ago, it was inevitable that this day would one day come. All we needed was to find the perfect partner, and when we learned about Denver’s TRVE Brewing Co. in 2012, we knew that they were it. So, after many bestial sacrifices, summonings,…

The Unguided’s previous album, Hell Frost, was the product of ex-Sonic Syndicate members Richard and Roger Sjunnesson venturing away from the sway of record companies and their malignant henchmen. Meeting favorable reviews–largely in Europe–The Unguided took off, pulling the sounds of Soilwork, Killswitch Engage, and Scar Symmetry and making them distinct and memorable. Some three…

In the interest of spangling your frost-still hibernation cave with the bloodiest of icicles this winter, we bring your attention to yet another bleak polar vortex that should scratch your hate-itch just fine. Starting in 1996, Swedish spike-sporters Necroplasma vomited forth a steady stream of demos, splits and a pair of full-length records, all of…